The world's favourite psalm

MUSIC: NIGHT IN THAT LAND

Performer: Duncan Chisholm / Composer: Johnny Cunningham
Album: Affric
Copperfish Records CPFCD005

John
Good morning. Welcome to this service of worship.

Christine
We're sharing this programme from a country which this year is celebrating the 1500th anniversary of the birth of an Irishman.

John
It was in 521 that St Columba was born and in 563 he established a settlement on the Island of Iona and began a mission of evangelism and peace-making which had an effect not just in Scotland but throughout continental Europe.

Christine
In honour of him, we share a version of the Song of Mary, the Magnificat, by an Irish American writer set to a well-known Irish folk tune – The Star of the County Down.

MUSIC – THE CANTICLE OF THE TURNING
Performers: Wild Goose Collective
Album: This is God's World
www.wildgoose.scot or www.ionabooks.com

Christine

Let us pray.
Thank you God that you have a place for us.
Whether our homes are grand or humble,
whether we are in care or in prison,
whether we are on the move or permanently grounded
you have a place for us:
we are rooted in your love.

Thank you God that you have time for us,
and that you meant there to be a day of rest
in which we can have time for you
and for ourselves
and for the people and things that matter.

And thank you God that there is a purpose for us,
for truly you have not created us to be dull and unchanging.
You have planted in us great potential – for listening, for empathy,
for laughter, for tears, for being kind even when we don't feel like it,
and for being able to admit to when we have gone wrong.

Bless us this day and in this time
when though apart in geography
we are all together in your presence.
Both Amen.

John

Scotland is a country in which, historically, the worship tradition of the dominant post- reformation church has been less than adventurous.

Not for us Protestants the elaborate ritual of Roman Catholicism, not for us the cathedral choral music of Anglicanism. Not even for us the enthusiastic hymn singing of the Methodists.

No. Calvinism, as represented by the Presbyterian churches, wanted the Word of God to have pre-eminence.

So for a couple of centuries we only sang what Jesus sang – the psalms, those reflections on the deepest human experience which Columba brought with him from Ireland. One direct result of this import is that in 1650 Scotland produced an export almost as ubiquitous as whisky.

That export is a version of Psalm 23. It's actually a revision of a translation published in London. But it's the one that stuck and, set to a tune from Aberdeenshire called Crimond, it was made popular by the Glasgow Orpheus Choir:

MUSIC: PSALM 23, THE LORD’S MY SHEPHERD (Tune: Crimond)
Performers: Glasgow Orpheus Choir directed by Sir Hugh Roberton
Album: The Glasgow Orpheus Choir – 20 Classic Recordings
Moidart Music Group Ltd

John
Like all revered saints, many stories of prophecy and miracles are attributed to Columba. Less well known is his affection for the song of the church and particularly the psalms. In his recent revised biography of Columba, Ian Bradley alludes to the saint's singing voice reckoned to be audible over 1,000 paces away and which on one occasion, when he and his colleagues were in hostile territory, soared into the air like some terrible thunder so that his adversaries were filled with fear.

Columba’s personal devotion to the psalms is recorded in an Irish
chronicle of his life.
It involved him regularly going to the Atlantic shores to chant the 150
psalms (or the three fifties as they were called) by heart; a
exercise which would have taken a long time to complete, and not
always in the best of weather for outdoor devotions.
Here is a text which reflects his experience:

MUSIC: SANCTORUM PIISSIME COLUMBA
Performers: Barnaby Brown & Choir of Gonville & Caius College,
Cambridge directed by Geoffrey Webber
Album: In Praise of St. Columba: The Sound World of the Celtic
Church
Delphian DCD34137

Reader
The three fifties, a heavy burden...
(Maire Herbert, Iona, Kells & Derry p264)

John
This spiritual exercise was engaged in by other Celtic monks, notably Cuthbert of Lindisfarne and David of Wales. Sometimes it involved them lying on the sand, at other times they would stand up to their waist in salt water. I have tried to encourage Celtic spirituality enthusiasts to follow that saintly practice, but so far no one has taken up the challenge.

I often wonder why it is that from the rich variety of the psalms which were for so long the mainstay of Scotland’s worship, it is Psalm 23 – not necessarily to the tune Crimond – that is arguably the world's favourite, even in countries where there are no sheep.

I want to suggest that it has something to do with the wide range of images in 6 short verses. Listen out for them.

MUSIC: SOLITARY CITIZEN
Composer: Malcolm Lindsay
Performers: Quartz (Members of Scottish Chamber Orchestra)
Album: Malcolm Lindsay: Solitary Citizen
Classic Productions CP 010

Christine
The Lord is my shepherd, I lack for nothing.

He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me to water where I may rest.

He revives my spirit; for his name's sake he leads me in the right paths.

Even were I to walk through a valley of deepest darkness I should fear no harm,
for you are with me, your shepherd's staff and crook afford me comfort.

You spread a table for me in the presence of my enemies.
You have richly anointed my head with oil, and my cup brims over.

Goodness and unfailing love will follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord throughout the years to come.

John
You can picture this psalm. You can picture a shepherd and his crook
You can picture green pastures and still waters
You can picture a darkened valley
You can picture a table set for a feast, and a cup that's filled to the brim
You can picture a house in which you would want to live forever.

I want to pick up some of these pictures and to begin with the pastoral image of shepherd. Of all the predominantly male professions, this is the one which has little menace. The shepherd represents a strength which is put to good purposes -
birthing lambs, mending fences, warding off predators,
putting sheep back on their feet who are stuck on their backs.

And it's an image which Jesus not only takes for himself but extends.
Listen to how he redefines shepherding in these words from John's Gospel.

Christine
I am the good shepherd;
I know my sheep and my sheep know me,
and I lay down my life for the sheep.
There are other sheep of mine, not belonging to this fold;
I must lead them as well,
and they too will listen to my voice. (Jn 10:14-16)

John
It doesn't surprise me that Jesus talks about the sheep recognising his voice. Four years ago in the Sierra Nevada mountains in Spain, I saw a shepherd who had no dog, but kept the sheep safe and close to him just by addressing them.

The exceptional thing about Jesus is that he inverts the relationship between shepherd and sheep. The normal pattern is that the sheep lay down their lives for the shepherd – lambs end up being killed for meat. But Jesus speaks of the opposite.

He lays down his life to save others. And this 'saving' of Jesus is not just about what we call 'sin.'
Some of us need saved from worry, from self-obsession, from avarice, or from any of the many temptations which diminish and threaten our God-given humanity.

Let's listen to a contemporary version of Psalm 23 by the American composer Marty Haugen.

MUSIC: SHEPHERD ME, O GOD Psalm 23
Performer: Marty Haugen
Album: Shepherd me, O God – Marty Haugen
GIA CD-185

John
After green pastures and a good Shepherd, there's a very different image:

Christine
Even were I to walk through a valley of deepest darkness
I should fear no harm,
for you are with me,
your shepherd's staff and crook afford me comfort.

John
I love this verse. I love how it begins:

Even if I were to walk through a valley of deepest darkness.

These words put paid to the notion that people of faith, if they trust in God, will never experience severe human suffering....or as some people more recently have claimed, never get Covid.

Ten days ago when I was on Iona celebrating Columba’s feast day and the re-opening of the refurbished Abbey, we heard about one of our previous members of staff, a young woman called Dora from Uganda. She is a devout Christian about whom stories abound, regarding her kindness, her encouragement and her creativity.
Such as the day when she balanced a jar on her head and walked through the Abbey while the Gospel story was being read about the woman who poured a jar of perfume over Jesus’ head.

MUSIC: ROBIN’S CELLO
Performers: Phoria
Album: Caught a Black Rabbit
Akira RecordsAKIRA010CD

This is a young woman who had no personal wealth yet raised from visitors enough money to build toilets for children in a school strapped for cash in her home town.

What we learned recently about Dora is that she has contracted Covid-19.
It’s not just in Uganda but throughout Africa that the pandemic is spreading.
We in Britain can feel well-pleased that for a population of 67 million people, over two-thirds of us have had at least the first jab. I feel very privileged to have had the second.
But what of Africa? In Uganda, only 2% of the population have had one vaccination.
In Nigeria the figure is less than 1%.
And remember, Covid-19 did not originate on that continent. It was exported from elsewhere. But every African nation and all people of faith are in danger of infection. As indeed people of faith always have been.

Go through the Bible and identify those believers who never endured the valleys of persecution, depression, bereavement, illness, and plaster their names on the walls of your churches. It won't take long. You'll be lucky if you find one.
Not Abraham, not Rebecca, not David, not Esther, not Jeremiah, not Ruth, not John the Baptist, not Mary Magdalene, not Paul, not Mary, not Jesus.

Faith is not a prophylactic, a contraceptive against the dangers involved in being human. Life involves risk, From the moment of birth, life involves risk. It's the hand we are dealt, and there's no other hand.

So either we curse God and the darkness, or we trust God present to us in and through the darkness.

Recently I've been reading some of the thoughts of that monumental pastor and martyr Oscar Romero, and found myself pondering these words of his:

How awful it would be to have lived in comfort, without any suffering, staying out of problems. Not needing anything,
having it all.

Romero does not see the dark valley either as a punishment from a capricious God, or a means of improving moral character, but rather an experience in which we can develop the gifts of perspective, patience and empathy. He invites the privileged to enter into solidarity with those who suffer. Because perhaps only then can we sense the solidarity of Jesus, who did not avoid the darkness.

Let's hear again verses from Psalm 23, this time sung by Kenna Campbell who sang at the funeral of John Smith, the man who could have been prime minister. She expressed in Gaelic both pathos and hope in the face of sadness and confusion.

MUSIC: SALM 23 – ‘SE AN TIGHEARNA MO BHUACHAILLE
Performer: Kenna Campbell
Album: Lasair Dhè – Flame of God
Macmeanmna SKYECD19
www.gaelicmusic.com

John
So far we have in God a good shepherd who not only leads us to pleasant places but stays with us in troubled times.

But now there is another, radically different image.

Christine
You spread a table for me in the presence of my enemies.
You have richly anointed my head with oil, and my cup brims
over.

John
'You spread a table for me.'
Years ago I was invited to do some workshops in California at what is called 'The West Coast Education Conference.' It's a huge gathering of priests and educators under the auspices of the Roman catholic archdiocese of Los Angeles. There would easily be over 6,000 people attending that year.

The main conference worship occasions, the liturgies, were held in the Anaheim Sports Stadium, more commonly used to host basketball matches. It is a huge building with several wrap around balconies to seat the thousands of spectators.

The final Mass was a memorable event. It began with dancers entering the arena waving huge banners over the heads of the assembled company. Behind them processed a hundred priests dressed in white albs and the purple stoles worn in Lent. Behind them a cackle of bishops and behind them Cardinal Mahoney who would deliver his sermon in English, Spanish and sign language.

MUSIC: MEDITATION ON BROTHER JAMES’S AIR
Performers: Chamber Ensemble of London
Album: English Music for Strings
Campion Cameo CAMEO2045

They processed on to the stage and sat around and behind what looked like a straight line of tables. When it came to the eucharist, ambient music was played as the altar was prepared. Two middle-aged Mexican women approached the row of tables with a huge bale of cloth. They laid it in the middle, then each unrolled the cloth in opposite directions. They then lifted the long cloth by the corners, and with clear confidence billowed it up into the air, and let it fall gently over the wooden tables, after which they both bowed in reverence to the altar.

At that moment, these words came into my mind with great urgency:

'You have prepared a table for me.'

This is not the image of the strong, manly Shepherd.
In most cultures even up to the present day, the person who prepares the table is usually, but not exclusively, a woman.

Here, it is as if God forsakes stereotypical male images because they limit our understanding of God. There are other sides to God's character which only a change in the picture can reveal.
And as if to endorse this, Jesus tells two parables back to back about the nature of God who seeks for and loves us.

Here is the first:

Christine
If one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them,
does he not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and
go after the one which is missing until he finds it.
And when he does, he lifts it joyfully on to his shoulder
and goes home to call his friends and neighbours together.
'Rejoice with me,' he cries, ' I have found the one that was
lost.'

John
There we have the image of God the good shepherd who looks for the lost.
But then, in Jesus’ next breath:

Christine
If a woman has ten silver coins and loses one of them,
doesn't she light the lamp and sweep the house, and look
in every corner until she finds it. And when she does she
calls her friends and neighbours together and says, 'Rejoice
with me! I have found the one that I lost.'

John
Here is the image of God the good housewife who looks for the lost.
It's almost a mirror image of Psalm 23.

Let's hear some more verses of the psalm, sung this time by the Scottish soprano Mhairi Lawson.

MUSIC: THE LORD IS MY SHEPHERD
Composer: John L Bell
Performers: Mhairi Lawson with The Cathedral Singers
Album: Psalms of David and Songs of Mary
GIA CD-403

John
Now we come to the last verse of the psalm and another image.

Christine
Goodness and love unfailing will follow me
all the days of my life,
and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord
throughout the years to come.

John
'Dwelling' in the 'house of the Lord' forever...
…. what is the 'house of the Lord?' The first thing that comes to mind is the Temple in Jerusalem where this psalm might have been written.
But that's a fairly exclusive image. It's appropriate if you are a priest or a full time temple musician, but what about those who are not professionally religious?

MUSIC: NIGHT IN THAT LAND
Performer: Duncan Chisholm / Composer: Johnny Cunningham
Album: Affric
Copperfish Records CPFCD005

It makes more sense to associate the house of the Lord with the earlier image of the table which has been prepared and the cup which overflows.

This is a notion which appears all through the Bible of heaven as a place of belonging: a place – according to Isaiah – of fine wine and great food; a place - according to Revelation - where there is a wedding feast; a place –according to Jesus – which has been prepared so that we might be gathered around his table.

I don't want to labour the image too much. But if we must have a picture of heaven, I would much rather it wasn’t Elysian fields. Rather, let it be a banquet – an endless banquet, where in the company of Jesus and the saints there is that kind of unadulterated joy of which we, from time to time, are given a foretaste even as we gather around tables on earth.

Now I could just finish with this hospitable image of heaven. But there is something else in this psalm which has been intriguing me.

It's the line, ' Goodness and love unfailing will follow me.'
Why 'follow me'? Why not 'surround me' or even ' be ahead of me'?
Why 'follow me?' It's as if – like a wake behind a boat - goodness and love unfailing are behind, not in front.

And that is not far wrong. Without being too technical, the used in Hebrew for 'follow' means ' to pursue... like one person following the trail left by another.

How can goodness and mercy follow after a person?...especially when according to Shakespeare,

The evil that men do (not the good)
...the evil that men do lives after them;
the good is oft interred with their bones.

Well Shakespeare does not represent the Gospel truth. The Gospel truth is that those who follow Jesus, who live generously and gratefully, selflessly and sacrificially leave in their wake a harvest of goodness and mercy.

This is certainly true of Columba whose legacy is incalculable. But also true of much less famous people who have touched our lives for good.
One of these is a mutual friend of Christine's and mine who lives in Nepal. His name is Chitra Karki. He came to Scotland for two years to study and you cannot think of him without remembering his humility, his humour and his deep faith which developed when he, a persecutor of the church heard the Gospel at the funeral of his uncle.

Chitra leaves a legacy wherever he goes - he has established churches and a school in a very remote area of the Himalayas. He has enabled the writing of hymns and song using original Nepali words and music. He and his wife have a family of around fifteen, nearly all of whom were once street orphans, and countless people have been touched by the infectious faith and goodness of this slight man.

Goodness and mercy clearly follow him all the days of his life.

So here he is, singing. I asked him what the tune was and he said, he just made it up while he was happily washing the dishes.

MUSIC: CHITRA’S SONG
Performer: Chitra Karki
Album: One is the Body – Wild Goose Worship Group
www.ionabooks.com


Christine
Let us pray.
Let us remember and thank God for all those who have left a legacy of goodness.... the famous ones like Columba, the less famous like Chitra, and all those known only to ourselves whose lives have touched us for good and for God.

Lord, in your mercy,
Both Hear our prayer.

Let us remember and pray for those who have yet to discover their potential for kindness, for affection, for joy, asking that God will enable them to move from restriction to fulfilment, and from fear to joy.

Lord, in your mercy,
Both Hear our prayer.

Let us pray for those who today are waiting for a birth or a death,
or a change in circumstances, or a kind word of encouragement,
asking God to companion them in their uncertainty.

Lord, in your mercy,
Both Hear our prayer.

And let us pray for whatever in the news as we hear it fills us with delight or despair, asking God to safeguard what is good and enable resistance to whatever demeans this earth and its people.

Lord, in your mercy,
Both Hear our prayer.

John
Trusting in God who gives us a hearing, we now say the words Jesus first prayed.

Both
Our father in heaven, hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread
and forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us.
Save us from the time of trial and deliver us from evil,
for the kingdom, the power and the glory are yours,
now and forever. Amen.

Blessing
Christine
Now may God bless you, wherever you are, and bless those you love wherever they are.
John
And may God give to us all, good faith, good hope and deep love today and always.
Both AMEN

MUSIC: THE KING OF LOVE MY SHEPHERD IS (Tune: Dominus Regit Me)
Album: Ultimate Hymns CD3
Authentic Media 8204672